


The Ranger and Her Noble

by CaitynotaCat



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Perc'ahlia Vacation, Very fluffy, adorable blushy percy, also mention of kima and allura, and a kimallura wedding, dancing de rolo, everyone ships this, musical communication, vex baring her heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 12:04:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7801186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaitynotaCat/pseuds/CaitynotaCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Vex learns that her favorite song from childhood will be played next, her first thought is to ask Percy to dance. How was she to know that with a little begging they would begin singing a love ballad to each other while they danced?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ranger and Her Noble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Griftings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Griftings/gifts).



> So for the Perc'ahlia Vacation Fic Swap held on tumblr by the amazing curriebelle, griffables requested a fic set at a wedding that wasn't theirs. And I couldn't pass up this chance for a kimallura wedding. Enjoy!  
> Also! Listen to Defiance Bay by Justin Bell on the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack for the song that inspired the ballad. (It's not exact but...)

Kima and Allura’s wedding was beautiful. The brides were radiant in all their finery and the city of Whitestone was beautiful in the midwinter light. Everything was white and glittering - with a little help of Keyleth’s druidic magic of course. It was well into the celebrations after the ceremony. The band was playing and everyone was dancing. Well, almost everyone.  
Vax had snuck off to do who knows what and Kash was sulking in the corner. In another corner sat Percy. He was in his usual blue coat, but the waistcoat beneath was more extravagant than the one he normally more. The embroidered gold paired with a blue shirt of the same shade as his jacket made him look like the noble he was.  
Percy was lost in thought, as he so often was, and didn’t notice Vex walk up to him. As the ending notes to the song began, she grabbed his hand, drawing away from his thoughts. She was dressed in a floor-length pine colored gown with grey fur across her shoulders. The bodice of the gown was fitted and flared ever so gently into a flowing skirt. Vex’ahlia looked positively regal with her hair in an intricate updo and peppered in holly berries.  
“Percy, dear, would you like to dance? It’s much more fun than sitting in the corner.” Vex smiled innocently.  
He hesitated for a moment. “I-I don’t dance. My place is in a workshop.” He gestured toward the crowd of dancers in front of them. “But I am positive there are plenty of young men out there who would be honored to accompany you.”  
Vex was shaking her head before he finished speaking. “They’re playing my favorite song next. My mother used to sing it to me.” She looked down and Percy swore he saw some color rise to her cheeks. “I would feel odd dancing to this with someone I hardly know. Please Percival?”  
Glancing up to the band, Percy saw Scanlan wink and mouth “go” before bringing his flute to his lips. As the musician began to play the first gentle notes, Percy turned back to the woman beside him.  
Straightening his posture as his dance tutor had taught him all those years ago, Percy tried to hold back a grin as he said “we had better begin dear, or the song will have ended.” He bowed and gently kissed Vex’s hand that was still in his.  
He lead them onto the dance floor and set their frame. All of those years of dance lessons from his childhood in this very castle were still engrained in the back of his mind. Percy gently began twirling Vex in a Waltz fashion he always enjoyed. As the song began to pick up, it became familiar to Percy yet he couldn’t place from where. That’s when Kaylee began singing.  
“There was a young princess, not far from here. Mother dear came to her. ‘My girl, soon you shall have a husband to lo-ove you for all your days…’”  
With Vex’ahlia in his arms and her skirts swishing across the floors, a distant memory resurfaced in Percy’s mind.  
_His mother was in this same room, dancing to an old ballad from her childhood. The melody behind her words was slow and inconsistent. At times the song was almost mournful; at others there was a tentative joy in the slow song. The ballad itself was of a young princess whose mother arranged a marriage for her. The girl, however, was in love with a wandering adventurer and refused to go through with the wedding. When the day came and the princess denied her vows, she was disowned and exiled. After many years, she found the adventurer she had forsaken everything for._  
_The two began to make a life together outside a large city; the adventurer would often go there for simple work while the former princess tended the home and farm. After many years, the queen’s knights came to the town in search of her daughter. They begged the woman to take the throne. Her mother had died and the only other heir was cruel to all under his rule. The princess agreed - on one condition. Her love would have to accompany her and claim the throne as king. The knights agreed; anything would be better than the current one._  
When the party made it back to the castle, there was poverty, filth, and horror everywhere. The princess was escorted inside while her husband snuck through the halls, ready to assassinate the King. The plan worked perfectly and the princess became the Queen, with her wandering adventurer as King.  
“Dear, are you lost in thought again?” Vex snapped Percy out of his memories. They were still dancing and the ballad - Princess’s Lament - still played. Kaylee was only now beginning the part where the banished princess finds her adventurer.  
With a faint smile on his face, Percy began to sing along. “Darling I’ve been searching long. I’ve followed tales of your bravery. Would you please help a forgotten daughter? For I lo-ove you.” He immediately felt his cheeks burning with color.  
Vex’ahlia didn’t comment on her surprise that he knew the ballad, but rather sang the next part. “Dear, I know who you are. It would be my honor and my joy to care for you for long as I shall live. But I am not suited; I have naught but what you see.” Percy could see that she was not only singing along to familiar words, but also trying to tell him what she felt. She was leaving every wall she had built to the side. She was baring her heart for him- something she hadn’t done for anyone in his memory.  
Percy picked up the next part, doing for Vex as she had done for him. His next words weren’t lyrics exactly, but rather a summary of the next stanza as well as his true feelings. “Dear that is all one would ever need.” His voice was low and broke halfway through his statement. Percy’s heart seemed to be in his throat, blocking most of the airflow.  
Percy remembered, too, as his mother crouched before him after her dance. He remembered her gentle words as she straightened his shirt collar and told him the one thing he must remember about that song. “Only dance to ‘The Princess’s Lament’ with your Adventurer, Percival.”  
Vex gave a little gasp as Percy bent and kissed her. It was gentle and tentative. When she didn’t pull away, it became something more. Both of them seemed to be pouring their hearts into each other through this one kiss - a declaration and a promise. To protect and cherish each other, to stand together, to love like the princess and her adventurer.  
They continued to dance as the song ended, this time doing more of a foxtrot as an Ashari song of blessing and hope for newlyweds was performed by Keyleth. Through the night Vex’ahlia and Percival danced. Song after song passed, until the band and all other couples retired for the night; until the two were only swaying to quietly hummed melodies. Only then did the Ranger and the Noble make their way, arm in arm, to their room.


End file.
